Former Prince Andrew has seen his share of scandals over the years, but his reputational issues began far before his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. In Entitled: The Rise And Fall of the House of York, biographer Andrew Lownie dives into the ex-Duke of York's life, and in one chapter, he shares the story of Andrew's disastrous 1984 royal tour that landed him the title of "Twit of the Year."
In April 1984, the then-prince traveled to California for a four-day solo tour in support of a U.K. trade promotion called "Britain Supports Beverly Hills," and also on behalf of the British Olympic Association ahead of the Los Angeles games that summer. While the Foreign Office declared that the trip "had been a considerable success," calling Andrew "a fresh, modern, enquiring and caring personality" with a "special appeal to Americans," Lownie wrote that the truth "was rather different."
Fans were left disappointed, with a thousand people "kept waiting" to meet the prince after he "dawdled at an aircraft factory." And Andrew—who was 24 at the time—shocked workers at a Beverly Hills department store when he told a British brand selling custom shirts that he hadn't "worn that particular make since I was 13" before walking out "25 seconds later." But it was an incident with a paint gun that took the cake.
The former Duke of York is seen accepting flowers from a fan in Los Angeles.
During a visit to the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, Prince Andrew tried his hand at using a paint gun at an abandoned property—and turned it on reporters. He ended up spraying the group of watching photographers and writers (and their equipment) with white paint and declaring, "I enjoyed that," per Lownie.
A 1984 New York Times article recounting the incident notes that the prince had "largely ignored his huge press entourage" of roughly 50 people before his paint gun spree.
Although Andrew later changed his tune and said "his finger had slipped," the press had a field day. "It was his opportunity to show he is ready to accept the responsibilities of being a member of the Royal Family. But Prince Andrew blew it; completely and disastrously," Ross Benson of the Daily Express wrote at the time. And Bill Stout of CBS declared Andrew's trip to be "the most unpleasant royal visit since they burnt the White House in 1812."
Ex-Prince Andrew is seen with a paint gun during his 1984 visit to Los Angeles.
Unsurprisingly, Queen Elizabeth was not amused. Lownie wrote that she "made Andrew pay for the damage caused, which was estimated at between £15,000 and £30,000, and stipulated that in future he was to be accompanied by a PR person as well as an equerry."
A 1986 Vanity Fair article (via the Express) also detailed the late Queen and Prince Philip's reaction to Andrew's Los Angeles escapades. "The Duke of Edinburgh put in a furious transatlantic telephone call advising his second son to ‘pull his finger out’ and grow up," journalist Sue Arnold wrote, adding that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip "finally read the riot act" to Andrew after his paint spraying incident.
The City of Los Angeles seemed to find the humor in the situation, though, mounting the spray gun "on a plaque bearing a coat of arms" and gifting it Andrew. And the incident did earn Andrew another award, with The People newspaper naming him 1984's "Twit of the Year," per Lownie.
